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Contemporary Sci-Fi Experimentation, Bending, and Film 1960s: Experimentation & Genre Bending

 The flexible and allegorical nature of sci-fi meets the needs of a world in civil, political, and cultural unrest

 Now a popular and serious genre, sci-fi begins to experiment both in form and content, and falling along a broad spectrum of concerns  Hard Sci-Fi: Centers on natural sciences (physics, genetics, chemistry, engineering) and generally concerns itself with scientific accuracy and technical detail  Soft Sci-Fi: Centers on social sciences (anthropology, psychology, sociology, poli-sci) and generally concerns itself with character studies and speculative societies 1970s: Emergence of Film

 As the field of special effects matures and more original screenplays are produced, many filmmakers achieve the same level of respect as their literary counterparts

 What begins with A Space Odyssey in 1968 continues into the ’70s with many stories written exclusively for the screen*

 Kubrick: *2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange

 Lucas: * Series

 Spielberg: *Close Encounters, *E.T., Jurassic Park, *A.I., Minority Report, War of the Worlds

 Scott: *Alien, Blade Runner, The Martian 1970s: Emergence of Film

 A Clockwork Orange, Directed by Stanley Kubrick  Soylent Green  Genre: Sci-Fi Police Procedural  With the world ravaged by the greenhouse effect and overpopulation, an NYPD detective investigates the murder of a CEO with ties to the world's main food supply.  Solaris  Genre: Psychological Drama  A psychologist is sent to a space station orbiting a planet called Solaris to investigate the death of a doctor and the mental problems of cosmonauts on the station. He soon discovers that the water on the planet is a type of brain which brings out repressed memories and obsessions. 1970s: Emergence of Film

 Logan’s Run  Genre: Dystopian Adventure  In the year 2274, young residents enjoy an idyllic, hedonistic lifestyle within the protective confines of a domed city. The general belief is that when each person turns 30, they are reincarnated for another blissful life cycle. Those who know the much darker truth become "runners"

 Close Encounters of the Third Kind, by Steven Spielberg  Genre: Family Drama  After an encounter with U.F.O.s, a line worker feels undeniably drawn to an isolated area in the wilderness where something spectacular is about to happen. 1970s: Emergence of Film

 Star Wars, by  Genre: /Space  The Imperial Forces, under orders from cruel Darth Vader, hold Princess Leia hostage, in their efforts to quell the rebellion against the . Luke Skywalker and , captain of the Millennium Falcon, work together with the droid duo R2-D2 and C-3PO to rescue the beautiful princess, help the Rebel Alliance, and restore freedom and justice to the Galaxy. Oh…and there’s a love story.

 Alien, by Ridley Scott  Genre: Space Horror  In deep space, the crew of the commercial starship Nostromo is awakened from their cryo-sleep capsules halfway through their journey home to investigate a distress call from an alien vessel. The terror begins when the crew encounters a nest of eggs inside the alien ship. An organism from inside an egg leaps out and attaches itself to one of the crew, causing him to fall into a coma. Philip K. Dick

 Dick, perhaps more than any other author, defined contemporary  The Adjustment Bureau (1954)  Minority Report (1956)  The Man in the High Castle (1962)  Total Recall (1966)  Blade Runner (1968)  Ubik (1969)  Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (1974)  A Scanner Darkly (1977) Dick

 Characters  Outsiders and Anti-Heroes

 Plots  Big Corporations, Authoritative Governments, Social Decay

 Themes  Nature of “Reality” and the Construction of Identity

 In the paranoid and unstable worlds of Philip K. Dick, “reality” is fragile and identity is hard to define

 Writing 25 before “” was thing, Dick’s fiction might best be understood as proto-cyberpunk